Indiegogo

Indiegogo (/ˌɪndiˈɡoʊɡoʊ/) is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. Indegogo is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Users can solicit funds for an idea, charity, or start-up business. It charges a 5% fee on contributions in addition to Stripe credit card processing charges of 2,9% + $0.30 per transaction. Fifteen million people visit the site each month.

The site runs on a rewards-based system, meaning donors, investors, or customers who are willing to help to fund a project or product can donate and receive a gift, rather than an equity stake in the company. Following changes in Security and Exchange Commission rules earlier in 2016, Indiegogo has partnered with MicroVentures to offer equity-based campaigns beginning in November 2016, allowing unaccredited investors to participate with equity stakes.

In 2002, while working as an analyst on Wall Street, Danae Ringelmann co-produced a reading of an Arthur Miller play. Though the performance was popular with audiences, there was little financial incentive available, and Ringelmann decided to seek alternative revenue streams. Ringelmann was originally inspired to work with independent filmmakers and theater producers after a filmmaker 50 years her senior saw she worked at JPMorgan and asked her to fund his film. In 2006, Ringelmann went on to the Haas School of Business to start a company she felt would "democratize" fundraising. There she met Eric Schell and Slava Rubin, who had had similar experiences with fundraising. Schell had previously worked with The House Theater Company in Chicago,^{[citation needed]} while Rubin had started a charity fundraiser for cancer research, after losing his father to cancer as a child.

Ringelmann, Schell, and Rubin developed their concept in 2007, under the name Project Keiyaku. The site officially launched at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008, with a focus on film projects. In June 2010, MTV New Media partnered with Indiegogo to develop new content from the site's projects. In September 2011, the company raised a $1.5 million Series Seed financing round, led by Metamorphic Ventures, ff Venture Capital, MHS Capital and Steve Schoettler, Zynga's co-founder. In February 2012, President Barack Obama's Startup America partnered with Indiegogo to offer crowdfunding to entrepreneurs in the U.S.

In June 2012, Indiegogo raised a $15 million Series A round from Insight Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Steve Schoettler, Zynga's co-founder. In January 2014, a Series B round of funding added $40 million to bring the total venture capital raised to $56.5 million. David Mandelbrot (the company's then-COO) was named CEO in January 2016.

In May 2019, CEO David Mandelbrot stepped down for personal reasons. He was succeeded by former Reddit core-product leader Andy Yang. In April 2022, announced the appointment of Becky Center as the company's new CEO.

In July 2025, tabletop game crowdfunding platform Gamefound announced it would acquire Indiegogo.

In an interview with Film Threat, Rubin said the site is "all about allowing anybody to raise money for any idea". Users can create a page for their funding campaign, make a list of "perks" for different levels of investment, then create a social media–based publicity effort. Users publicize the projects themselves—through Facebook, Twitter and similar platforms. The site levies a 5% fee for successful campaigns. For campaigns that fail to raise their target amount, users have the option of either refunding all money to their contributors at no charge or keeping all money raised minus a 9% fee. This option must be selected before the campaign begins, and the goal will be listed, directly underneath the amount raised, as fixed (only receive funds if goal is met) or flexible (will receive funds if goal is not met). Indiegogo does not provide prospective backers with any means to contact campaigns to ask questions or make suggestions before they decide to participate.